Weh has career day in Royals’ romp

UPPER DARBY — The Upper Darby sideline erupted. Even after the game had been moved to Saturday morning and pouring rain hampered field conditions, the Royals were applauding and could not help but express their excitement.

The reason for the celebration came after senior wide receiver Marson Weh caught a pass from quarterback Kevin Kerwood and took it 95 yards for a touchdown. At 5-foot-6, Weh is not the biggest guy out there but on this day he made the most significant impact.

Weh hauled in four receptions for 164 yards and two touchdowns while also adding one on the ground in leading Upper Darby to a 41-14 victory over Conestoga. After the Pioneers took the opening possession to the Upper Darby 3-yard line, they turned it over on downs. On the ensuing play, Weh caught Kerwood’s pass on an out route then turned upfield and outran the Pioneers defense for the game’s first points.

Despite dealing with sloppy weather conditions, Weh felt he was going to be able to have some success.

“We’ve been practicing that play all week,” Weh said. “Coming out in these conditions, my coaches told me to focus on catching the ball without my gloves. They told me after you catch the ball make a move and just let your speed take over.”

Conestoga (0-3, 0-2 Central League) didn’t help itself on the next drive as Milton Robinson (73 rushing yards) fumbled the ball and the Royals took over at the Pioneers’ 26-yard line. One play later, Weh burned Conestoga again, this time on a scoring run to the left to make it 13-0 at the 3:58 mark of the first quarter.

Head coach Rich Gentile has emphasized getting Weh the ball early and often.

“He’s our big-time threat,” Gentile said. “When you have somebody that can go downfield like him, it’s very hard to cover him man on man, which means you have to take somebody out of the box to double cover.”

Midway through the third quarter, after Kareem McAdams (71 rushing yards, one touchdown) had established the running game, Gentile wanted to go back to his deep threat again. Weh pulled an inside-outside move and broke free down the sideline. Kerwood, who finished with 191 yards through the air, found him for a 54-yard scoring connection to put Upper Darby (2-1, 1-1) in the driver’s seat, 27-8.

The Pioneers offense never seemed to get going as they turned the ball over three times, which included two interceptions that the Royals returned for touchdowns in the second half. Liam Kirk had 70 yards on the ground including a 14-yard scamper in the second and Cameron Marcus took a quarterback draw in from the goal line late in the fourth. Conestoga head coach Matt Diamond knew the sloppy conditions could cause an issue for his group.

“We know Upper Darby always has athletes with big-play ability,” Diamond said. “We preached all week that we need to take good angles, especially in conditions like this. One slip can make something small turn into something big.”

Weh and the Royals are hoping to keep their big-play capability going as they travel to Penncrest next week.